50 little shadows
by p y r otechnic - - ROYAL
Summary: 50 fragments of a couple seeped in darkness


**Ship**: Romin (Rogue Cheney x Minerva Orland)

**Rating**: T

**Theme set:** Epsilon

**A/N:** Happy birthday Roxy!

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><p>#13 – Change<p>

He had no idea that the girl at that man's side when he was recruited to help bring a guild to power would be the guiding force behind so much change in his future, but later, he would not regret taking her father's offer.

#46 – Drive

She is driven to succeed, he notes as he and his brother watch the young tigress give orders as casually as Sting gives smirks, and it is that drive that inspires him towards greater cruelties to please the man they all serve.

#35 – Sudden

It's a sudden flash of fear, but it haunts his mind even after they have parted, and he wonders for the first time what it is his lady hides behind her arrogant exterior.

#27 – Hide

That smile of hers hides a million emotions, ranging from fear to hurt to anger to desire, and it takes him time to decode each version of it.

#18 – Attention

It surprises her, how much she craves his eye on her, about as much as it scares her to want someone as much as she does.

#43 – God

The power of gods reside in her hands, giving her the ability to stand against demons and swordswomen alike, but when he sees the price she pays for it, he wonders if its even worth the loss of sanity.

#02 – Cool

Her temper has a tendency to burn quickly, but she knows that it's his cold fury that's more dangerous.

#19 – Soul

She is soulless, and his is seen as pure despite the darkness that he lives in; and yet, they find in each other exactly what they are looking for.

#14 – Command

"Let me go!" she commands, but the fear in her eyes is what causes him to pull her closer instead, aiming to give her the safety of his embrace.

#01 – Motion

Their love sets things in motion, things that can cause the destruction of everyone else, but they are both too selfish to care.

#21 – Fool

"You're a fool," he murmurs, watching her rage burn at another loss to the Fairies, but he knows that she just wants the very thing he desires — victory.

#50 – Believe

"I don't know how to believe anymore," she whispers, clinging to him as they travel back from Era, and he knows just how far that confession shows that they've come.

#25 – Shadow

His darker side prefers her, he knows, and that worries him for the longest time — for how can he cling to any light when his heart is reaching for a woman saturated in shadows?

#05 – Wrong

Everyone around them is insistent that they are wrong for each other, but they didn't know how, for the first time in her life, Minerva felt like everything was right in her world when she was in his arms.

#28 – Fortune

Once, Minerva bore the trappings of fortune, but Rogue decides that he likes her better dressed down, her power and beauty exuded subtly instead of flaunted in the faces of those she disdained.

#42 – Bother

It bothers her how people look at him, as if he is not the same person he was before; all because he chose to save her instead of leaving her to the beasts she had fallen amongst.

#15 – Hold

Little did he know, as he holds her through her inner battles with her many demons, that one day she would be the only one there to hold him through his own.

#32 – Eye

Her lips brush against the scar marking where his eye once was, and he knows that he would pay the price again if it meant bringing her home.

#10 – Learn

She needs to learn how to be a better person, how to not use and manipulate for her own advancement, and his patience makes him the perfect teacher.

#45 – Naked

He realizes that she's allowed him to see more of her then anyone else ever has, beyond her body into the broken soul she fights so hard to hide, and it makes him love her even more.

#06 – Gentle

His hands are careful as fingers trace the scars that mar the skin of her arms, physical evidence of the battle she still fights in her own mind, even as he hates the fact that he cannot take this enemy away from her.

#34 – Sing

It never surprises him that his demon has a voice of an angel, and it soothes him to hear her sing softly to him when she doesn't realize he's listening.

#41 – Power

Power has always been a commodity for her, a thing to be used to gain more and more, but when he begins to understand how she thinks, it becomes more of a common ground — a way for them to be equals rather than soldier and commander.

#23 – Child

Her heart stops at the sound of the scream, watching as the child-like Exceed he has taken care of for so long falls to the ground, and Minerva wishes once again that she could do something.

#39 – Torn

She's torn between reaching for him for her own selfish desire to feel like she's alive, and letting him heal for his lost Exceed without her angering him by her presence, and it's killing her.

#26 – Goodbye

Saying goodbye is hard, especially when he knows how many times she's heard it before and how it still hurts her, so in the end he just can't.

#03 – Young

She looks so young as she sleeps, Rogue notices, brushing away a lock of hair as he guards against the nightmares that haunt his lady.

#44 – Wall

As her back hits the wall, her hands tangled in his hair and mouth moving against his, Rogue can remember what it's like to feel — what it's like to love again.

#17 – Vision

His eyesight is waning, but he is conscious enough to see her move in between his body and the monster he had been fighting, her form shimmering and shifting as she summons a power he knows she fears — but not as much as she fears losing him it seems.

#38 – Wash

His eye closes as her fingers brush through his hair, taking the freshly washed locks and twisting them into a loose braid with the ease of long practice on her own hair.

#07 – One

He knows that he cannot lose her, the one connection he has left to the man he once was, and so he devotes himself to protecting his warrior queen, punishing those who would dare harm her with the cruelty that has come from losing everything else.

#49 – Hunger

They are both drenched in blood — not all of it their own — as they return to their dwelling, but that doesn't stop either of them from reaching for the other, straining to sate the lust that battle leaves them with.

#30 – Ghost

The ghosts between them, her father, his best friend, threaten to drive them apart, but in the end, they both need each other too much to let the other go forever.

#09 – King

The king might be the most important piece on the chessboard, but he is happy to have her as his queen instead.

#31 – Book

Her fingers graze the pages of the book in her lap, but she cannot focus on the words before her as his hand brush against her arm, sending her nerves alight in the most pleasant of ways.

#20 – Picture

The image is one she hesitates to explain, the one thing she has left from a time when her family was whole, but in the end he reminds her that she isn't alone anymore — that she has _**him**_.

#04 – Last

They are the last Tigers, the only survivors of the guild that brought them together, and that only brings them closer together in the endless war for the right to live.

#36 – Stop

It hurts for him to beg for her to stop, but when the alternative is knowing that she is in pain — pain brought on by her own hands nonetheless — it makes things a lot easier.

#24 – Now

Her hands are impatient, earning a chuckle from the man beneath them, but it's his fault that she's feeling so demanding for what he gives to her.

#16 – Need

She needs him, needs him to hold her through the night, or else the memories of those who had hurt her, who had sought to crush her will, haunt her sleep without his strength protecting her.

#08 – Thousand

Not even a thousand dragons can scare her, not when compared to the idea of losing the first person that actually cared about her as more then a tool.

#37 – Time

Going back in time seemed like the prime solution, and it allows him to see parts of her life that he never witnessed before; even though it only fuels his hatred for her father.

#29 – Safe

"You're safe now," she murmurs, pulling him into her arms to try and help him forget the monster people now saw him as — a feeling she knew all too well.

#48 – Precious

He disappears after she tells him that she is pregnant, but the look in her eyes, excitement he hadn't seen before on her face, is too precious for him to abandon for long.

#11 – Blur

His eye tries to focus on the bundle in her arms, a life that they had brought into this hell of a world together, but Rogue's vision blurs with tears — of joy or of worry, he does not know.

#33 – Never

He vows to make sure that his daughter has the live her mother never had, a chance to smile like she rarely did.

#47 – Harm

The words are on the tip of her tongue, and it terrifies her to realize that she was so close to repeating the words she had heard so many times in her own childhood to her own child.

#22 – Mad

To many, which is the demon and which is the mad(wo)man is up in the air, but to Roza, they are just her beloved parents, who both shower her with love.

#12 – Wait

"Wait for me," he whispers, brushing aside her hair for one last touch before he heads out to protect his future from those who would stop his rule.

#40 – History

History will not look upon either of them with kindness, as the woman who embraced darkness for revenge or the man who tried to control dragons for power, but the two find peace regardless.

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><p><strong>AN:** Posting this for my wonderful co-captain's birthday today~ Hope everyone enjoys~ Reviews are loved~


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